What makes you think you're special?

Have
you ever been asked this rhetorical question? A question like
this usually comes as a response to a request for an exception to the rules. The
well-meaning intention is that fairness requires that all of us be treated the
same. However, I want to make a case that you are special!

The idealized form
of the world is not one where every single one of us is treated the
same. In the ideal world, all of us get special treatment and that
special treatment is unique to our individual special qualities and traits.

Marcus Buckingham —
author of “Now Discover Your Strengths” — makes the
compelling case that we find fulfillment and success in work and life when we
discover our special talents and spend most of our time playing to those
strengths. The best managers are ones who recognize their employees’
strengths and help customize their work assignments to these strengths — not
just assigning work based on pre-defined, cookie-cutter roles. The best teams
don’t consist of well-rounded members making the same contributions. They
consist of unique members that contribute their individual strengths to make a
well-rounded team.

Harvard Economist Ricardo Hausmannsays, “modern man is useless as an
individual.” When humans lived in caves, it might have been possible that
all the knowledge in the world could fit inside the head of one
individual. This isn’t true in the modern world where innovation requires
curating the knowledge of thousands of people. Our organizations benefit
from the collective knowledge and contributions of each of our special
people. Recognizing what makes each individual special is part of creating
a high-performing institution.

Biographer Walter Isaacsonwrote about a six-year-oldSteve Jobswho tearfully asked his adoptive
parents why his birth parents rejected him. His parents responded: “You are
special, this is why we have adopted you.”

“From then on I
realized that I was not – just abandoned,” Jobs said. “I was chosen. I was
special.”

Isaacson thinks
this is the key to understanding Jobs and how he was driven to make a dent in
the universe. Let the example of Jobs’ life inspire each of us to
recognize we are special and can make our own dents in the universe.

If someone asks
you, “What makes you think you’re special?” just say, “Where do I start?”

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